Developing an International Standard for the Trade in Live Reef Food Fish - SEAFOOD Ecolabelling: Principles and Practice - page 167

8.3 Certification within the LRFFT

Growing interest in supplying the LRFFT has driven traditional supply countries
in SE Asia to widespread expansion (Figure 8.1) and progressive depletion of their
local resources. Continued over-exploitation of reef resources, in concert with the
ongoing use of harmful fishing practices, has endangered the sustainability and
future of what could be a profitable industry benefiting large numbers of people in
the Asia-Pacific region. The demand-led expansion of the LRFFT has given rise to
a number of environmental, social and economic concerns including:

the sustainability of supply due to overfishing and depletion of target species
that are important in other subsistence or commercial fisheries;
a reliance on wild-caught juvenile fish for grow-out, which contributes to the
depletion of the target fish stocks, and the use of 'trash fish' to feed aquaculture
species;
the environmentally damaging aspects of some harvesting techniques, including
cyanide fishing and targeting of juveniles and spawning aggregations, affecting
fish and their habitats (Cesar et al . 2000); and
social issues arising from resource access conflicts and use, misuse of income
generated and the use of destructive fishing practices. Often, additional income
generated for communities from the LRFFT has come at a cost to future eco-
logical, economic and social sustainability.

Despite a concerted effort over the past decade to reduce the adverse social, eco-
nomic and biological impacts of the LRFFT, it continues to pose major challenges
for the future sustainable use of this marine resource. In part, this reflects the narrow
focus of previous programmes on the discrete aspects of the LRFFT such as fish-
ing practices in producer countries (e.g. cyanide fishing), biological impacts (e.g.
targeting of spawning aggregations), production alternatives (e.g. hatchery-based
culture of LRFF) and demand-side monitoring. While non-government organisa-
tions (NGOs) and regional agencies maintain ongoing LRFFT-related programmes
and continue to make important and effective efforts to address trade concerns,
there remains a need for a whole chain-of-custody approach to redress the negative
impacts of the trade.
The need for innovative programmes that support responsible fisheries capture
and aquaculture through trade mechanisms is recognised as one solution to reform-
ing the trade in marine species (Civic Exchange 2001). Third-Party Conformity
Assessment Certification Schemes are often proposed for addressing problems as-
sociated with the sustainable harvesting of natural resources in both marine and
terrestrial sectors (CCIF 2002). The problem, however, is that it is hard to demon-
strate the efficacy and application of these schemes across a broad spectrum of
natural resource issues. A useful first step may be the development of voluntary
'codes of best practice' contained within a 'standard'. While such 'best practices'